The History And Current Use Of The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle - UAV In Text, Photographs, and Video

INTRODUCTION

Has any airplane in the past decade captured the public imagination more than the unmanned aerial vehicle named Predator? Americans have been fascinated by the very idea of pilots, back in the United States, tracking targets for hours, watching the doorways of insurgent safe-houses, all the while poised to launch a Hellfire missile. This image will always be associated with the complex operations of Afghanistan and Iraq. Predator did not come out of nowhere.

Most know that the idea for unmanned flying craft is almost as old as Wilbur and Orville Wright's pre-1903 kites. There's also solid archival evidence that airmen have long pursued the development of unmanned air vehicles. In World War II, the US Army Air Forces under Gen. H. H. Arnold converted battle-worn B-17s and B- 24s into airplanes that were automatically piloted and laden with explosives. The USAAF Chief wanted the air forces to bring the greatest pressure possible against the enemy. In a 1944 staff memo, Arnold remarked, “If you can get mechanical machines to do this, you are saving lives at the outset.”

Still, 50 years passed between Arnold's comment and the 1994 deployment of Predator ….


CONTENTS By CHAPTER

1. Air Force UAVs The Secret History

2. UAV News Stories And Photographs

3. UAV Videos (over 20 included)